Black-capped Conure...?

Question

I recently bought a black-capped conure and I have some training questions... I've had her for about 4 months (she was a baby when I got her, so she's still probably pretty young). She is very affectionate and absolutely loves people, and has no problem stepping up if it means getting out of her cage. She's pretty good in the first five minutes of being out, but then she starts to get nippy. I have heard two different approaches to biting - don't do anything, or squeeze their beak. Which method is better? Also, she likes to sit on my shoulder and once she gets there she won't step up and will bite when I try. Suggestions? Also, I wanted to put some sort of towel in her cage for her to sleep under (she always goes under the paper on the bottom of her cage in the night, which makes it harder to clean) but she likes to chew things. Is it a problem if she chews it? And one more thing, any and all 'potty training' advice would be very helpful.

Answer 1

Hi there!

Ok...first, what you're experiencing with the nipping after her being out for several minutes THEN biting is overload behavior. She gets so excited by playing and having fun that she goes a little crazy for a bit. The key here is to calm her down, put her on a t-stand or a playstand or something where she's out, but isn't touching you or her cage. Talk calmly to her and get her to calm a bit. After she's calmed down, she can go back to playing with you or whomever.

With the biting, I wouldn't squeeze her beak so much as removing her beak from your skin and telling her a sharp No! But, the thing here is to be consistent every time you do it. If she's biting, that's not acceptable behavior. I'll tell you what I do with my macaws that seems to work pretty good is if they bite, I put them down on the t-stand (or the back of the chair, whatever's closest because you don't want her to forget why you're doing this) and then I stand close, but turn my back to her. My birds can't STAND it when I turn my back on them. They'll beg and beg until I forgive them.

If that doesn't work for you, then keep a chew toy handy. Balsa wood is good, especially for babies. They can chew it up pretty quickly and it's a great distraction. When she bites, tell her No! sharply and then wedge the toy into her beak, instead of your hand.

Ignoring it I guess works for some birds, but you're not teaching them anything. The most important thing here is that you don't scream, cry, yell at her or anything like that because you don't want to entertain her, thus giving her a positive reinforcer for her bad behavior.

As far as shoulder sitting goes, don't. I wouldn't let her back on your shoulder until you have established at least a 95% hand control with her. You need to know that she will do what she's asked, no matter what. I say 95% because you can never trust 100% that they will do what you ask, no matter how great they are. The thing with shoulder sitting is that it's a dominance thing. Keep her below your eye level until you trust her enough that she'll do what you ask. The taller they are, the more dominance they have. There are a lot of debates over this issue, but I've worked with behavior problems for well over 300 birds, and I'm telling you from experience, that dominance IS an issue.

It's fine if she chews on the towel, but you want to make sure that you moniter the towel to get rid of any stray threads because you don't want her to get caught up in it or trapped or strangled. I'd actually use like a hand towel or a dish towel if this is something you want to do for her. It's smaller and it's less likely to hurt her if she gets tangled up.

Actually, my baby Greenwing Macaw is still at the Pet House where I bought her because she's not fully weaned. We use two different things for the birds to snuggle up with there. One is a hanging bed of sorts. I think it's called a Snuggli. The birds can go in it and nest down, feeling completely surrounded by warmth and protection. The other thing we use for babies is a stuffed animal that doesn't have any parts that they can rip off and ingest. A cockatoo baby that's in the same room of the nursery that my baby is in uses a Woodstock stuffed animal and she LOVES it. It's hillarious to watch her snuggle with it.

As far as potty training goes...this is what I did with Rio our Military Macaw: When Rio came home, I kept a big stack of neon pink cardstock (the kind that you can put into your printer to print flyers and stuff). I watched his posture, and when he started to get fidgety and squatty, I knew he had to go. I slid a pink page under him and told him to go potty. When he did, I praiiiiiiiiiised him like NO tomorrow. Everytime he went, I slid that under him no matter where we were for about a week. Then, I put the pink cardstock on his playstand and in his cage. When he had to go, he'd start begging (flapping his wings close to his body) to go back to the playstand or cage. It was really easy to teach him. Now, he'll at least try to hold it until he gets back to one of those places. And, it works too if you're out of the house because now, I can take that pink cardstock and if he's got to go if were in a store or something, he'll squat and fidget, and I'll know to slide that under him. He'll poop right on that cardstock.

Good luck!

Answer 2

Black Headed Conure

Answer 3

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Answer 4

As for the biting, do not let her know that biting hurts, she will learn that if she bites, she gets put down so she will bite every time she wants down, Never press the beak as a punishment, it will backfire on a bird. Birds will chew, buy her toys that are designed to chew on, your local PetSmart will have a selection. As for potty training, I have read ( I have not done it) that you can learn when they are ready to potty, then start saying a specific "potty word" that they learn, then they will start to wait to hear the "potty word" to use the potty, again, I have never done that, and that was with Parrots.